For the first time ever, the WSOP held an event in South Africa and most would call the event a mild success at best. Dubbed the “WSOP Africa”, the short series consisted of two events, a PLO event and a NL Holdem Main Event. The two events were tied to the WSOP Circuit and were held in Gauteng, South Africa at the Emerald Casino. These events did not award circuit rings nor do they count in the points race for the National Championship.
Warren Zackey Wins WSOP Africa Main Event
The first event was an ,100 PL Omaha event which attracted just a scant 37 participants. After rebuys and add-ons, the prize pool swelled to ,688. Only four player wound up receiving money in this event, and when the final card fell, Felipe Ramos from Brazil was the winner. He took home ,786 for his win.
The Main Event of the WSOP Africa was a ,000 NL Holdem Event. This event drew a solid crowd of 188 players and had an overall prizepool of 6,830. A few big names did show up for the Main Event including Vanessa Rousso, Maria Ho, and Gus Hansen. Some might find this surprising since there wasn’t any hardware up for grabs. However, there was a top prize of 2,856 at stake, which should have been well worth their time.
Maria Ho outlasted the other pros in the event as she made the final table. She started the final table as the 3rd short stack with Warren Zackey leading the pack with over 2.1 Million. Zackey had over 1 Million more than his next closest competitor.
Ho was unable to capitalize on her final table appearance and finished in 6th place in the event. Another woman, Melanie Banfield, would make heads-up in this event against Warren Zackey. The two battled back and forth for a while before Zackey finally took the lead.
The final hand saw Banfield get caught with her hand in the cookie jar when she shoved with 8d-4h. Zackey quickly called with Qh-8s and left her drawing thing. Mackey flopped queen on the flop all but gave Zackey the win. Banfield was drawing dead after the turn and Warren Zackey became the WSOP Africa Main Event Champion.
Warren Zackey took home 2,856 for his WSOP Africa prize. It is hard to say whether this event will return as hardly anyone covered this event. Even the official WSOP website failed to do so. Could this be the end of the WSOP Africa? We will have to wait until next summer to know for certain.
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